The Eshtemoa Synagogue was an

ancient Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history through late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the development of Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient h ...

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

synagogue A synagogue, also called a shul or a temple, is a place of worship for Jews and Samaritans. It is a place for prayer (the main sanctuary and sometimes smaller chapels) where Jews attend religious services or special ceremonies such as wed ...

, now an

archeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...

, located south of

Hebron Hebron (; , or ; , ) is a Palestinian city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Hebron is capital of the Hebron Governorate, the largest Governorates of Palestine, governorate in the West Bank. With a population of 201,063 in ...

as-Samu As Samu' or es-Samu' () () is a town in the Hebron Governorate of the West Bank, Palestine, 12 kilometers south of the city of Hebron and 60 kilometers southwest of Jerusalem. The town had a population of 26,011 in 2017. As-Samu' is located o ...

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

, in the

State of Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

. The remains of the ancient Palestinian synagogue date from around the 4th–5th century CE.

History

Eshtemoa Eshtemoa (Heb. אֶשְׁתְּמֹעַ), meaning obedience or "'place where prayer is heard", was an ancient city in the Judaean Mountains, mentioned several times in the Hebrew Bible. It is also the name of two people mentioned in the First Boo ...

, identified as modern as-Samu, was an ancient city named in the Bible (). During

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

and

Byzantine period The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...

, Eshtemoa was described as a large Jewish village.

Architecture and description

The remains of the synagogue were identified by L. A. Mayer and A. Reifenberg in 1934, in which site they describe a recess in the wall, once used as a

Torah Ark A Torah ark (also known as the ''hekhal'', , or ''aron qodesh'', ) is an ornamental chamber in the synagogue that houses the Torah scrolls. History The ark is also known as the ''ark of law'', or in Hebrew the ''Aron Kodesh'' () or ''aron ha-Kod ...

("Heikhal"). In 1969–70, a full excavation of the site under the guidance of Ze'ev Yeivin revealed that the building occupied the most prominent site in the village. Ancillary buildings attached to the synagogue were removed in order to reveal the old structure. The old synagogue was built in "broadhouse" style without columns and measured . Entry was by any of three doors along its eastern side and one of the three niches recessed into the northern wall functioned as the Torah Ark. The building housed a mosaic floor and displayed external ornamental carvings. Four seven-branched '' menorahs'' were discovered carved onto door lintels and one of them is displayed in Jerusalem's

Rockefeller Museum The Rockefeller Archeological Museum, formerly the Palestine Archaeological Museum ("PAM"; 1938–1967), is an archaeology museum located in East Jerusalem, next to Herod's Gate, that houses a large collection of artifacts unearthed in the exca ...

. Along the northern and southern walls of the synagogue were built two benches, one on top of the other, of which only remnants remain.

Aftermath of the Islamic conquest

After the

Muslim conquest The Muslim conquests, Muslim invasions, Islamic conquests, including Arab conquests, Arab Islamic conquests, also Iranian Muslim conquests, Turkic Muslim conquests etc. *Early Muslim conquests **Ridda Wars **Muslim conquest of Persia ***Muslim conq ...

, the synagogue was converted into a mosque and a ''

mihrab ''Mihrab'' (, ', pl. ') is a niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the ''qibla'', the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca towards which Muslims should face when praying. The wall in which a ''mihrab'' appears is thus the "''qibla'' wall". ...

'' was added. The ''mihrab'' was built in place of the bench that ran along its southern wall. According to a local tradition, this addition was made during the conquest of

Saladin Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known as Saladin, was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from a Kurdish family, he was the first sultan of both Egypt and Syria. An important figure of the Third Crusade, h ...

(in the 12th century), rather than during the early Muslim conquest of the Levant. Robert Schick suggests that the conversion may have taken place in the 10th century instead of during the Umayyad period. A Crusader church was constructed near the eastern side of the synagogue in the 12th century.

Modern era

The western wall is still standing to a height of . Many architectural elements of the building have been reused in the modern village. In 2024, the synagogue was the targeted in an arson attack. Local settler activists described it as an attempt to "erase Jewish identity".

References

External links

{{Synagogues in the State of Palestine 4th-century establishments in the Byzantine Empire 4th-century synagogues 21st-century attacks on Jewish institutions

Archaeological sites in the West Bank Biblical cities Mosques converted from synagogues